V. I. The druidical institution --
Britain and the Britons --
the name of England and of the English --
The Anglo-Saxons --
Caedmon and Milton --
The Anglo-Normans --
The page, the baron, and the minstrel --
gothic romances --
Origin of the vernacular languages of Europe --
Origin of the English language --
Vicissitudes of the English language --
Dialects --
Mandeville, our first traveler --
Chaucer --
Gower --
Piers Ploughman --
Occleve, the scholar of Chaucer --
Lydgate, the monk of Bury --
The invention of printing --
The first English printer --
Early libraries --
Henry the Seventh --
First sources of modern history --
Arnolde's Chronicle --
The first printed chronicle --
henry the Eighth : his literary character --
books of the people --
The difficulties experiences by a primitive author --
Skelton --
The ship of fools --
The psychological character of Sir Thomas More --
The Earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt --
The spoliation of the monasteries --
A crisis and a re-action. Robert Crowley --
Primitive dramas --
The reformer Bishop Bale; and the Romanist John Heywood, the court jester --
Roger Ascham --
V. II. Public opinion --
Orthography and orthoepy --
The ancient metres in modern verse --
Origin of rhyme --
Rhyming dictionaries --
The arte of English poesie --
The discoverie of witchcraft --
The first Jesuits in England --
booker --
Sir Philip Sidney --
Spenser --
The Faery Queen --
Allegory --
the first tragedy and the first comedy --
The predecessors and contemporaries of Shakespeare --
Shakespeare --
The "humours" of Jonson --
Drayton --
The psychological history of Rawleigh --
The occult philosopher, Dr. Dee --
The Rosacrusian Fludd --
Bacon --
The first founder of a public library --
Early writers, their dread of the press; The transition to authors by profession --
The age of doctrines --
Pamphlets --
The "Oceana" of Harrington --
The author of "The Grounds and Reasons of Monarchy" --
Commonwealth --
The true intellectual system of the universe --
Difficulties of the publishers of contemporary memoirs --
The war against books.